Xuyang Li1, Eric M. Eastman2, Robert J. Schwartz1
& Ruxandra Draghia-Akli1
1
Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine
, Houston, TX 77030.
2
GeneMedicine, The Woodlands,
TX 77318.
Correspondence should be addressed to Robert J. Schwartz schwartz@bcm.tmc.edugene therapymyogenic regulatory elementshuman growth hormone releasing hormone
Relatively low levels of expression from naturally occurring promoters
have limited the use of muscle as a gene therapy target. Myogenic restricted
gene promoters display complex organization usually involving combinations
of several myogenic regulatory elements. By random assembly of E-box, MEF-2,
TEF-1, and SRE sites into synthetic promoter recombinant libraries, and screening
of hundreds of individual clones for transcriptional activity in vitro and
in vivo, several artificial promoters were isolated whose transcriptional
potencies greatly exceed those of natural myogenic and viral gene promoters.
